Some topics tend to get heated and go off track in unwholesome ways quite quickly. The "hot topics" sub-forum is a place where such topics may be moved so that each post must be manually approved by moderator before it will become visible to members.

One of my fave topics, thanks Robert. Any felllows out there who are interested in celibacy but think masturbating is wrong try choking the vicar without an accompanying phantasm when he squawks. It gives a whole new perspective on the phenomenon and gives you a little glimpse into how the mind has come to fabricate a distorted perception of the whole orgasm business.

Be careful when posting to a thread on masturbation when your signature line mentions the "compassionate hands foundation." I wasn't being cheeky. I was just reading down the thread and for some involuntary neurological reason the phrase "compassionate hands" kinda jumped out at me.

Be careful when posting to a thread on masturbation when your signature line mentions the "compassionate hands foundation." I wasn't being cheeky. I was just reading down the thread and for some involuntary neurological reason the phrase "compassionate hands" kinda jumped out at me.

Absolutely!
I don't mind the embarrassment for a very worthy charity. When I was in Myanmar I met the founder of Compassionate Hands Foundation. "Snow" is a single person who is making a profound effect on the lives of hundreds if not thousands of Burmese people. Originally established to provide aid to the victims of Cyclone Nargis in 2009, Compassionate Hands, when I was in Myanmar in late Nov-early Jan, was raising funds for a number of projects including wells to replace contaminated water supplies on the Cyclone affected west coast, raising money for schools in Yangon, and providing disinfectant to monasteries so that skin infections such as ring-worm are not passed on to monks and novices. Snow is also a co-practitioner within my tradition and served myself and a number of US and Canadian assistant teachers by showing us around and introducing us to people in Yangon.
kind regards

Ben

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Hi, this is my first post so apologies if it is in the wrong section or even the completely wrong forum.

I have been practicing Goenka based Vipassana for the better part of 16 years. I have even sat longer courses and am pretty good at maintaining my daily practice of 2 hours. During my practice of Vipassana I have become much calmer and more focussed, have stopped drinking and drug-taking altogether (used to be a heavy drinker and pot smoker) and generally feel much better about the direction my life is taking.

However, I still feel that I am way too easily overcome by passion. I am in a very happy marriage, my wife is also an old student of Vipassana, yet too often I find myself browsing inappropriate websites and engaging in self-sex. I spend way too much time fantasising about other women even though there is absolutely no way I would act out these fantasies in real life.

I am also a member of an online support group for these sorts of behaviours but pretty much all the other members are coming from a Christian /12 step perspective which doesn't resonate with me at all.

I was wondering if anyone here has encountered similar difficulties and what they have done about it.

Hi Urgesurfer and welcome to DW!
I'm also an 'old student' of SN Goenka. As a matter of interest, when you say you've done longer courses, specifically, what length courses have you done? And when did you do them?
kind regards

Ben

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Check out this 32 parts body meditation. It reduces the attraction to our external self.

This meditation has a special place in the Dharma. It is one of very few subjects of meditation which contain both a tranquillity aspect and an insight aspect. As well, it is a very useful practical meditation, providing a powerful antidote to the hindrance of lust.

UrgeSurfer wrote:I find myself browsing inappropriate websites and engaging in self-sex. I spend way too much time fantasising about other women even

There is nothing here to beat yourself over. If anything, you might try extending some compassion towards yourself. And when you are having these urges, before get out of hand (or in hand), best when you just feel the initial inkling, just sit quietly and pay attention without comment to what you are feeling, the urge to resist the action, the urge to act on the desire. Even though the habits are deeply established, you can choose how to act here, to sit quietly, paying attention.

Of course, all of that easy to say and very difficult to do, but each time you choose to simply try to pay attention rather than allowing yourself to get lost in the feelings, acting on your desires, you are weakening the hold of the old pattern. And as I said, have compassion for yourself, be kind to yourself, just as you would towards another who might be coming to you with this problem, asking for advice. And be kind to yourself in your "failures." In paying attention you learn the nature of the habit that is driving you. You see the discomfort of wanting, the pain of wanting to not want, the burning of the sexual urge and humiliation of giving into it when you think you should not.

Basically, allow yourself to be uncomfortable. Learn to start putting some space around the urges, stepping back a bit just so you can pay attention - without comment. One of the more interesting experiences in meditation is catching that moment when the desire drops away.

All of this is going to be a struggle, an exploration, which is well worth doing. You have the meditation experience. It will be a bit different from what you are use to doing, but the basics are there to just pay attention to what arises and falls in your mind/body as the urge to act out starts to present itself. Like the habit you developed, it will need to be done over and over. There is really no other way.

>> Do you see a man wise[enlightened/ariya]in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.<< -- Proverbs 26:12

This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723

Maybe fast for a day or two, and really get used to the hunger pangs. Then, later, when you feel the sort of lust arising as you mention, you might try equating it with the hunger feeling. Mere groin hunger, instead of gut hunger, if you will. Because of having suffered from relatively severe gastrointestinal issues, decoupling such urges and noting them as mere body input is of great help to me. Maybe such an approach can help here as well.

Another method from my experience: it is definitely the case that related thoughts increase the valence of the hunger (in either case) - at the root thereof I find a certain boredom, and the related thoughts which arise seem to be the minds way of finding me something to do, i.e. of solving the boredom. Well, boredom is dukkha, and in response to such thoughts I reiterate that I have gone for refuge to the Dhamma, and not to the minds native skills (because the Dhamma works against suffering while native skills only keep me alive to propagate DNA). In my experience, therefore, being mindful of such boredom as it arises can prevent lust from even developing.

The Buddha himself remarks in the Vinaya that sexual desire is a tenacious bugbear (I paraphrase), so take heart. We're all in this together.

"And how is it, bhikkhus, that by protecting oneself one protects others? By the pursuit, development, and cultivation of the four establishments of mindfulness. It is in such a way that by protecting oneself one protects others.

"And how is it, bhikkhus, that by protecting others one protects oneself? By patience, harmlessness, goodwill, and sympathy. It is in such a way that by protecting others one protects oneself.

@Ben, I did a 20 day course last year. I have also sat two Satipatthana courses.

@pegembara, thanks for the link. Actually an Assistant Teacher I went and talked to a few years ago about this same issue recommended much the same thing. At the time it didn't really gel with me, but I'm willing to look at it again.

@tiltbillings, thanks a lot for your post. I've really been trying to get to the place you describe. It's good to hear it reflected back at me.

@daverupa, I agree with a lot in your post, boredom is definitely a 'trigger' for me.

tiltbillings wrote:… the basics are there to just pay attention to what arises and falls in your mind/body as the urge to act out starts to present itself. Like the habit you developed, it will need to be done over and over. There is really no other way.

I think this is the heart of the matter. Deep down I know what I need to do, it's just a matter of sticking to doing it.

I know what you lack of,tranquility and concentration. Samatha meditation will help. Engage in tranquility meditation. If it's better if you can enter Jhana. Practice more.
Identify yourself, let's try this out. If you practice vipassana you feel really peaceful, try on samatha. If you practice samatha and feel very hard to keep it up, i suggest you train samatha. Now you lack tranquility in attacking your desires.

Few days ago, I did engaged myself on m@aturbation. But then I found out, even I know that I should not be doing it(having observant on my actions), but my mind is too weak to overcome the desire. So I trained myself in samatha meditation. And I can see now the effect of it, the desires are slowly losing. But I'm still thinking of it....shyt.... oh well, going back to samatha again.

Samatha meditation is not enough — one should practice vipassanā meditation.

There are four foundations of mindfulness — the body, feelings, thoughts, and mental states. One should observe and be mindful of all four, not only the body (respiration) and feelings, but also consciousness (citta) and dhamma.

When seeing a visible object with the eye, be aware that you see it. So too, with sounds, odours, tastes, and touches. Be especially mindful when thinking thoughts. Fantasising must be known and noted whenever it arises as a mental process. Don't suppress it, know it for what it is — utter delusion and heedlessness.

So too with mental states: when lust or anger arise they should be observed as they occur. When sloth or restless arise they should be known too, and when doubt or confusion arises, it should also be known. All mental states should be observed in the same way — excited, elated, joyful, sorrowful, anxious, fearful, etc.

“Having thought of a mind object, one loses mindfulness. Getting involved in the attraction of it, one feels the onset of desire that tries to imbibe it.”

“A multitude of passions such as covetousness and rage, springing from ideas, torments one who takes a firm hold of it, with the result that his mind becomes burdened with vexation. Therefore, nibbāna remains remote from one who would rather carry the burden of suffering than practise meditation.”

Bhikkhu Pesala wrote:Samatha meditation is not enough — one should practice vipassanā meditation.

Indeed!

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725